The exotic mulberry tree feels more and more at home in our gardens. Find out everything about planting, caring for and harvesting the mulberry here.
The mulberry tree is still a rarely seen companion in our gardens. The fertile small tree produces masses of sweet fruit and is also an eye-catcher. We present the mulberry in a portrait and give tips on cultivation and use.
Mulberry tree: origin and properties
The genus of mulberries (Morus) consists of many different species that are mainly found in East Asia and Persia. Like the fig (Ficus carica) and the jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus), they belong to the mulberry family (Moraceae). Mulberry trees have been cultivated in China for over 4000 years. The fruitful fruit tree is also mentioned in the New Testament. The white mulberry tree (Morus alba) was brought to the Mediterranean region around 550 AD and cultivated there. Around 1700, the white mulberry also reached Central Europe. However, they were not planted there because of their sweet fruits, but as food for the silkworm (Bombyx mori) and thus for silk production. Older mulberry trees can also be found in the landscape, especially in northern Germany. In addition to Morus alba, there are numerous other mulberry species and varieties that we would like to introduce to you separately in our variety article.
Mulberry trees grow as medium-sized trees to a height of about 8 to 10 meters, in exceptional cases up to 15 meters. In old age, the rounded, sparsely branched crown of the tree is 4 to 6 meters wide. The trees can also have multiple trunks or grow as shrubs. With the exception of the dwarf mulberries, mulberries have strong growth and grow up to 70 centimeters a year. Typical for the entire mulberry family is the whitish milky sap that escapes when injured and can cause skin irritation. The alternate, broadly ovate leaves of the mulberry are large, mostly lobed or undivided and up to 20 centimeters long. At the flowering time of the mulberry tree in Maythe light green, rather inconspicuous hanging catkins appear. These are sensitive to cold and therefore endangered by late frost. The fruits, which are up to 10 centimeters long, ripen from the end of June to August and fall from the trees in heaps. These are false berries, actually aggregate nuts, some of which are seedless. Some fruits of the mulberry resemble blackberries in that they turn a deep purple color when ripe. However, there are also red, pink and creamy white mulberry fruits. They all taste extremely sweet and, depending on the type, also pleasantly spicy and sour.
Tip: The flowers of the mulberry tree are mostly bisexual and self-pollinating. However, there are also only purely male or purely female plants that have to be planted together for fruiting. Unisexual male plants are also offered as "fruitless mulberry tree" or "mulberry tree without fruit".
Planting mulberries: location, time and procedure
Mulberries are heat-loving plants that prefer a sunny and sheltered spot. They are adaptable and thrive best on lighter, nutrient-rich and calcareous soils that tend to have a high pH value. Since mulberry trees tolerate drought well, they also grow on poorer sandy soils. Single mulberries require a generous amount of space in the garden, but can also be planted closer together as a tall hedge. The planting distance is 3 to 4 meters in all directions for single trees and about 1 to 1.5 meters for hedges. The ideal planting time for mulberry trees is in early spring from mid-March. In this way, the young plants are not exposed to any threatening winter frost and can grow well over the summer.
Proceed as follows when planting mulberries in the garden:
- Loosen the soil deeply, work in sand on heavy soils and, if necessary, lime.
- Dig a deep planting hole, at least 1.5 times the size of the root ball.
- Put in the mulberry tree, fill with soil and compact slightly.
- Tether single mulberries with two stakes and coir rope upwind and downwind.
- Form a pouring rim and water well regularly during the first summer.
If you want to keep the mulberry tree in a bucket, you should use low-growing dwarf mulberries. The pot should initially have a volume of at least 20 liters and with a good water drain and abe equipped with a drainage layer. We recommend a nutrient-rich, loose potting soil such as our Plantura organic universal soil for the mulberry. The high compost content reliably stores moisture instead of peat, which is harmful to the climate, and releases it to the plant roots when needed.
Care for the mulberry tree: pruning, fertilizing etc.
Mulberries, especially the black mulberry (Morus nigra), tolerate pruning well and can therefore be used as a hedge or as a topiary and kept small. However, with heavy pruning of mulberries, it should be borne in mind that the plant will produce significantly less fruit next year. Mulberry hedges grow so bushy and produce lots of leaves but fewer fruits.
Mulberries are generally easy-care fruit trees and tolerate longer periods of drought well. A prerequisite for this is, of course, a good root system. For this reason, it should be watered regularly in the first few months after planting or in pot culture, especially in summer. If the mulberry tree has grown well, it hardly needs to be watered. Fertilization is particularly important for heavily fruiting trees and in pot culture with a limited supply of nutrients. Mulberries have a medium nutrient requirement and should be supplied with a long-term fertilizer, such as our Plantura organic universal fertilizer, for the first time at the beginning of the growth period in April. The granules are worked into the surface around the plant and the nutrients are slowly released by the soil organisms. In June, fertilization takes place, which provides the mulberry with essential nutrients - such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - for the rest of the year.
Common pests on mulberry trees
In general, mulberries are hardy plants that rarely suffer from disease.
Occasionally, the mulberry crab (Gibberella baccata) can pinch off branches and cause them to die.
Black, rectangular spots on the leaves are caused by an infestation with the bacterium Pseudomonas mori. The leaves of the mulberry tree serve as food for the caterpillars of the silk moth, but the voracious producers of silk are not native to us. But our resident caterpillars and snails also love the taste of fresh mulberry leaves.
Young plants should be protected from defecating with glue rings and snail protection for the first two to three years.
Is the mulberry tree hardy?
When young, mulberries are somewhat sensitive to frost and cold outside of wine-growing regions. The black mulberry, in particular, which needs warmth, should be given good winter protection every year or overwintered as a young potted plant in a cool, bright and frost-free winter quarters. Older mulberry trees are usually completely hardy down to -15 °C. If young branches freeze off at extremely low temperatures, the strong growth of the mulberry quickly compensates for the loss.
Propagate Mulberry Tree
Mulberries can be grown from seed or propagated from true-to-variety cuttings.
Sowing mulberry seeds is done in spring on a warm windowsill. To do this, mix a quarter of a nutrient-poor potting soil with sand and fill a suitable seed container. Mulberries are dark germs, the seeds should be covered with about 2 cm of soil and kept moist at about 20 °C. The first seedlings appear after two to four weeks. When the young mulberries have grown and the first true pair of leaves appear, the plants should move to a more nutrient-rich substrate. You should not plant out the home-grown, cold-sensitive mulberry trees until next year. The young plants spend the winter indoors on a bright windowsill.
In summer, cut cuttings or sticks from the young, still green shoots of the mulberry tree with a sharp knife. These should be 10 to 20 cm long for successful propagation. First, all leaves are removed except for the top pair of leaves. Mulberry cuttings can be rooted in a glass of water or placed in nutrient-poor substrate half improved with sand. The cuttings should be placed in bright light and at 15 to 20 °C and kept well moist over the next few weeks. When the cuttings start producing fresh leaves, you can transfer them to pots with potting soil.
Harvesting and using mulberries
Mulberry trees produce edible fruit and have been cultivated in the warm regions of the Mediterranean and Asia for hundreds of years. The mulberry harvest season begins at the end of June and lasts until the end of August as the elongated aggregate fruits ripen one after the other. Shortly before the start of the harvest of the first mulberries, you should put a fine-mesh net underneaththe trees tense, as fully ripe fruit simply fall off the tree. They can only be kept for a short time and should be used quickly or eaten fresh. By the way, the contained seeds can be eaten without hesitation. The white mulberries taste sweet and rather bland on one side, the taste of dark mulberries is usually much more aromatic, sweet-sour, juicy and blackberry-like. The exotic fruits can be preserved in the form of mulberry syrup, jam, mulberry juice or fruit wine. Carefully dried mulberries can be stored for months. In addition to fructose, the he althy mulberries also contain antioxidant dyes, provitamin A, vitamin C and numerous minerals.
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